Can He Fix Atlantic City?Developer Bart Blatstein is betting New Jersey’s troubled gamblingresort is primed for a turnaround. By Ed Condran It’s fittingly overcast moments before Bart Blatstein arrives for lunch at Phillips Seafood at the Playground,his new incarnation of the former PierShops at Caesars in Atlantic City.What was once known as America’sPlayground has perhaps hit its nadir.

Atlantic City is running out of money and
faces a possible takeover by the state. Four
of its 12 casinos were shuttered in 2014—
including Revel, a $2.4 billion high-rise
extravaganza that opened in 2012. Annual
casino revenue dropped to $2.6 billion in

2015 from a high of $5.2 billion in 2006.The city is $240 million in debt.To Blatstein, it smells like a good timeto buy in.

“This afternoon I was touring theShowboat,” says Blatstein of the shut-tered casino hotel he scooped up as partof a buying spree that has made the Phila-delphia real estate developer a majorinvestor in Atlantic City’s future. “It wasweird walking around alone there. It waslike The Shining.”Blatstein, 61, bought the Showboatfrom Stockton University in January forjust $23 million. He says it would cost $1

billion to build a similar property today.“I’m very pleased with that purchase,”he says.He got a potentially bigger bargainin 2014, when his company, the Philly-based Tower Investments, purchasedthe bank-owned Pier Shops for just$2.7 million. The four-story, nearly

500,000-square-foot pier stretches overthe beach across the Boardwalk from thegiant Caesars casino resort. It too wouldcost $1 billion to build today, Blatsteinsays. At the time of the sale, the complexwas only 40 percent occupied; Blatsteinclaims he doubled that within a year.

“When I took over the Pier, it was los-ing money year after year,” says Blatstein.“It was millions of dollars in the red.